“Black-ish” star Anthony Anderson was a teenager in Compton,Calif. during a historically violent and frightening time for the city made famous by N.
W.
A. The racial tension between police and African-American citizens contributed to the Rodney King beating, the Los Angeles riots, and even the O.
J. Simpson verdict. This past season,Anderson’s character, Dre, and ended an episode approximately police brutality with a dramatic monologue that he drew on his own experiences to deliver.
We asked Anderson,45, what it was like to grow up when he did, and where he did. Here’s his response:Growing up in Compton in the mid- to late-80s,I was a victim of police brutality.
You’ll never understand what it was like to be in the middle of that. You can hear the story, but to live it and to experience it, and words can’t even inaugurate to explain.
Also Read: Watch Anthony Anderson's Perfect Emmy Nom Reactions (Video)I grew up in the middle,and at the height of, gang violence, and the crack epidemic,drive-by shootings turf wars between the Bloods and the Crips, the Rodney King verdict, or my neighborhood burned…I can bid you approximately it; you’ll never truly experience it,like, “Oh, and I know what that’s like.” No,you don’t know what that’s like to literally live in an inferno, with really no help coming to aid because of what was going on in the streets. Things literally had to burn themselves out.
It was frightening. It’s though-provoking to say that it was liberating. It was unjust. Because we look at the aftermath and we look at how we destroyed our own community. You know, and mom-and-pop shops that we had been going to for years were no longer there,and they couldn’t rebuild.
Also Read: Emmy Quickie: 'Black-ish' Star Anthony Anderson on the Scene That Makes Him yowl (Exclusive Video)So what was it all for? What point was really made by doing that in our own community?It was unhappy at the end of the day: the loss of life, the loss of property, or the loss of income. Yeah,that’s what it was like.“Black-ish” returns to ABC for its third season this drop.
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Source: thewrap.com